Huge storm for tahoe

(RGJ) - The National Weather Service has issued a rare blizzard warning for Lake Tahoe and the Sierra Nevada and a high wind warning for the Truckee Meadows beginning Friday.

Three winter storms are swirling in the Pacific and will flow toward the region beginning today, forecasters said. The smaller storm is expected this evening and a larger, colder, wetter system -- with blizzard conditions in the Sierra -- is expected to hit the Tahoe-Truckee region Friday afternoon. A third storm is due Sunday.

Mountain snow is expected to fall Thursday night and significantly increase Friday and into Saturday, when snowfall rates could reach 6 inches an hour in some parts of the Sierra, forecasters said.

By late Sunday, 5 to 8 feet of snow is expected to fall across much of the Sierra, with 10 feet possible in spots, the weather service said. The heaviest snowfall is expected to the south of Lake Tahoe and more than a foot of snow is possible in Western Nevada.